Our Event at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom

On the first day of the multi-day event, the Religious Freedom Coalition, in conjunction with the Africa Conference of Christians, held an event
featuring the sole survivor of a Sunni Muslim Boko Haram attack. His name is Ike (short for Isaac).

The Boko Haram had given all the Christians of his village 72 hours to leave. Many were unable to leave and dozens were killed during a brutal attack while Ike was away at work.

The next day, while attending the funeral for those killed in the attack, the Boko Haram attacked the funeral! Every person there, including Ike, was shot in the head. All died except for Ike. He lost most of his teeth, his bottom lip, and part of his jaw but he survived.

NOTE: You can watch Ike’s testimony of the attack and his faith at our Internet site.

Ike was at our meeting with his son Little Ike. A second speaker was Solomon Asemota, who is a prominent octogenarian Nigerian Christian leader and chair of National Christian Elders Forum in Nigeria. He is also an attorney and former police chief. I spoke about my experiences in Nigeria and the work of the Religious Freedom Coalition.

We had a great turnout to our meeting including members of the Christian media such as Christianity Today. Several American church leaders were also present.

On the downside, a Muslim cleric showed up to try to disrupt the meeting with various lies about “moderate Islam.” He was ignored. It is typical for Muslims to show up to meetings in Washington that focus on terror and religious freedom, in hopes their presence will intimidate presenters and cause them to back down from being openly critical of Islamic practices. Often the clerics will send women wearing hijabs.

Esther, whom I mentioned in a previous post, spoke at an event held by Senator Lankford (R-OK). He is one of the chairs of the Senate Values Action Team and a co-chair of the Senate Religious Freedom Caucus. Those of us who know the truth, including Senator Lankford, did our best to make our case to help persecuted Christians.

The presence of some groups such as the Scientologists – who spent a ton of money on high dollar receptions – removed some validity from the overall events of the week. There are always those who follow a path away from the Lord that show up at these type of events as spoilers. All we can do is pray for their salvation.